Ross Hoek Motorsports

Holland, MI (September 8, 2011) – The Labor Day Weekend event in Crandon was the first time the #21 Allstar Performance, Venom Energy sponsored Ford Ranger saw action on the track since the practice incident at Charlotte. In fact when Ross Hoek Motorsports arrived at the track early Friday morning, the #21 Ford Ranger would need several more hours of prep time before it was ready for competition. Realizing magnitude of work still needed, Ross and his team didn’t rush the situation and had the truck ready for Sunday’s Round 10 race action.

The race weekend was plagued with intermittent rain showers during all three days of competition. This caused track conditions to vary greatly depending on when your class was scheduled to run. When the PRO-Light group lined up for Sunday’s race, the group was fortunate enough to have blue skies and a fairly dry race track.

Round 10 had twenty PRO-Light trucks line up side by side in two rows deep for the Crandon land rush start. Due to missing the last four rounds of racing, Ross was at a disadvantage with a second row starting position.  The race was scheduled for ten green flag laps with a mandatory yellow / caution lap at the halfway point of the race to bunch up the field.

The start saw the #21 Allstar Performance, Venom Energy sponsored Ford Ranger quickly move into eighth place by the second lap. When the mandatory yellow came out Ross was in sixth place and was looking to challenge for a spot on the podium.  After the field went back to green flag racing, the #21 Ford Ranger began to have carburetor issues, slowing the pace of the race truck. After ten hard fought laps, Ross Hoek crossed the finish line in ninth place.
 
“After Charlotte, our truck was a disaster,” recalled Ross Hoek. “We really took a hard hit and we tore the engine right loose in the chassis; I knew if we rushed the repairs it would come back to bite us. When we arrived at Crandon we still had to finish all the wiring and plumbing as well as mount the body and a brand new ISP containment seat. It took us until late Saturday afternoon to get our hot rod running and Sunday afternoon we barely made the call to the green flag.”
 
“As far as the racing, we had a great first half of the race considering we started in the second row. Then after the mandatory yellow we developed a miss in the carburetor and this really hurt the truck coming out of the corners. Other than carb issue, the truck is in really great shape and after a couple days back at the shop  the #21 Allstar Performance, Venom Energy sponsored Ford Ranger will be ready for Chicagoland.  I need to commend my crew for totally rebuilding this truck and having it ready to compete with no test time prior to the race.   We almost called it a year after that wreck but getting back on the track now will make us better prepared to run for the 2012 Championship!”